I live in Wisconsin, and it seems I live in one of the few areas where Health Information Exchange is alive and well. See below an interesting monthly report I get from the Wisconsin HIE. It shows the health of this system. A very healthy and Quality producing HIE: 2.6 Million Patients, Almost 15 Million Lab transactions, and Almost 200 Thousand Radiology transactions.

This is a Standards based HIE, based on IHE-XDS and XCA. Fully federated.

I also find it interesting that opt-out has only happened 33 times, total, out of 2.6 million patients. Yes, this is an 'implied consent' state. There are many ways offered for patients to opt-out. Note, one patient has chosen to opt back in...

Welcome to WISHIN Connections, the monthly e-Newsletter from the Wisconsin Statewide Health Information Network (WISHIN). We will keep you up to date with WISHIN activities, news on health information exchange (HIE) and new product developments.

WISHIN Pulse Dashboard

Data throughApril 30, 2015

Pulse Transaction Statistics

ADT Transactions: 65,635,193

Lab/Pathology Reports: 14,710,937

Radiology Reports: 196,700

Transcribed Reports: 144,121

Public Health Syndromic

Surveillance: 55,350,072

Pulse Patient Statistics

# of unique patients: 2,609,548

# of patients opted out: 33

# of patients opted back in: 1

Pulse User Statistics

# of Pulse Users: 1,018

Users Who Logged in 1+ Times in Month: 322

# of Chart Accesses in Month: 5,964

# of Unique Patients Queried in Month: 1,176

EKG Results Now Available Through WISHIN Pulse

<![if !vml]><![endif]>Earlier this month Ministry Health and Affinity Health System

became the first WISHIN clients to share EKG reports via WISHIN Pulse. This marks the first instance of adding attachments to Pulse messages. By adding a PDF of the EKG report, connected physicians are able to view EKG wave form images along with a cardiologist's interpretation of the results. Receiving both the wave form images and interpretations allow providers to make even more informed decisions about their patients' care plans.

The path to statewide interoperability has become a bit easier with the announcement by several electronic health record (EHR) vendors that they would eliminate fees that caused concern for some health care organizations seeking to participate in health information exchange (HIE).

In April, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology sent a report to Congress, criticizing information technology developers as well as health care organizations for "blocking" state and federal efforts at HIE. Later in the month, Epic Systems, Athenahealth, and other EHR vendors announced plans to halt charges for interfaces and transactions related to HIE.

In its April 27th edition, Wisconsin Health News reported that Epic, the largest EHR vendor in Wisconsin, previously charged providers 20 cents for each clinical message sent to a health information exchange with inbound messages charged at a rate of $2.35 per patient per year. The vendor eliminated the fees retroactively to April 1 and plans to continue with no-charge data sharing until 2020.

Elimination of HIE-related fees is just one piece of the puzzle for interoperability. As Jitin Asnaanii, Executive Director of CommonWell Health Alliance points out, free exchange doesn't necessarily equal effective exchange. "There are two key factors that will drive real-world exchange and usage of health information," Asnaanii told Healthcare Dive, "(a) availability of functioning interoperability services to those who need them; and (b) access to the data when and where it is needed."

So while many EHR vendor fees have been eliminated for the moment, it remains to be seen if the vendors will also remove technical and practical barriers to exchange with other EHR vendors' products.

WISHIN's vendor-agnostic, one-to-many architecture advances true interoperability. One connection with WISHIN circumvents the complexity of multiple point-to-point connections between providers and delivers access to information from all other participating organizations. With clinical information for more than 2.6 million unique patients (and growing) WISHIN is a critical tool for advancing interoperability for seamless, complete and improved patient care statewide.

EHR Adoption Rates Help Wisconsin Rank Second in Nation for Health Care Quality

<![if !vml]><![endif]>In a report released early this month by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Wisconsin placed second among the 50 states in quality of health care. The report, which ranks states on more than 200 criteria, produces a score based on a state's achievements in relation to "achievable benchmarks in health care quality."

A number of Wisconsin's highest-scoring measures were related to electronic health record (EHR) use and capabilities in hospitals. In Wisconsin many hospitals were early adopters of EHR systems and the state scored 44% better than the national benchmark in "hospitals with computerized system that allows for electronic clinical documentation including physician notes."

A high rate of EHR adoption is one of the factors that make Wisconsin poised to lead in development of successful statewide health information exchange (HIE) and achieve widespread interoperability.

HIE is positioned to thrive in Wisconsin because so many hospitals and providers have already digitized their health care information. As an independent, EHR-agnostic HIE utility, WISHIN is able to connect to any EHR system including those created by popular vendors such as Cerner, MEDITECH and Epic as well as those of smaller organizations or custom-built EHRs. One connection with WISHIN provides access to exchange and use information from all other participating organizations.

WISHIN can play a key role in continuing to advance health care quality in Wisconsin. WISHIN Pulse makes information available to those who need it, when they need it. Enabling vital information to follow patients wherever they seek care can mean better outcomes, fewer preventable readmissions, and lower administrative costs.

About Me

The information posted here are mine and not necessarily represent By Light Professional IT Services Inc. I am a Standards Architect specializing in Standards Architecture in Interoperability, Security, and Privacy for By Light Professional IT Services Inc. Primarily involved in the international standards development and the promulgation of those standards. Co-chair of the HL7 Security workgroup, a member of the FHIR Management Group, FHIR core team, and co-chair of IHE IT Infrastructure Planning Committee. Participate in ASTM, DICOM, HL7, IHE, ISO/TC-215, Kantara, W3C, IETF, OASIS-Open, and other. Was a core member of the Direct Project specification writing, authoring the security section, and supporting risk assessment. Active in many regional initiatives such as the S&I Framework, SMART, HEART, CommonWell, Carequality, Sequoia (NwHIN-Exchange), and WISHIN. Active in the Healthcare standardization since 1999, during which time authored various standards, profiles, and white papers.

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